The Inside Story of How Fyre Festival Went Up in Flames

Soon after William N. Finley IV got off the bus to the festival grounds late Thursday afternoon, he realized something was very wrong. He’d flown into the Bahamas for the Fyre Festival, a luxury getaway ostensibly filled with celebrities, yachts, and villas on a pristine beach in an island paradise. Little of that promise was in sight, though. He did spot festival organizer Billy McFarland, atop a platform surrounded by confused attendees. No one knew what to do. The crowd was told to claim shelters, so they rushed nearby to what attendees have described as a city of disaster relief tents.

It was near dusk, so Finley went out in search of his luggage, which had arrived separately. As night fell on Great Exuma island, he stumbled into a gaggle of festival-goers who were unloading bags from a big red shipping container. They searched for their suitcases with phone flashlights.